The Delhi High Court will on Sunday hear the central government’s petition challenging a trial court's order of staying the execution of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case.
The high court also issued notice to DG (Prisons) and Tihar Jail authorities, seeking their stand on the central government's plea challenging the stay on execution.
Hours after the mercy petition of Vinay Sharma, one of the four convicts, was rejected by President Ram Nath Kovind, Akshay Singh, another convict in the case, filed a similar appeal on Friday. A Delhi court then ruled that none of the convicts will be hanged on Saturday.
Mukesh Kumar Singh, 32, Pawan Gupta, 25, Vinay Kumar Sharma, 26, and Akshay Kumar, 31, who are lodged in Tihar jail, were ordered to be hanged on February 1 at 6 am.
Of the four, Mukesh and Vinay have exhausted all their legal remedies, including the clemency plea dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17 and the appeal against the rejection was thrown out by the Supreme Court on January 29.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said it is sad that the convicts are "escaping death sentence" by using legal loopholes, stressing that there is an urgent need to amend the laws to ensure hanging in cases of rape within six months.
"It saddens me that the convicts in Nirbhaya case are escaping death sentence by using legal loopholes. They should be immediately hanged. We are in dire need to amend our law so that in cases of rape, hanging takes place within 6 months," he said in the tweet in Hindi.
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